Argues that students embody multiple ways of knowing and learning, all of which can theoretically and practically be fostered in the literature classroom. Discusses various ways (especially choral reading and Readers Theater) of including different kinds of intelligence other than merely the verbal in the interpretation of literature. (HB)

Describes the positive experiences of a tenth grade writing teacher using peer evaluation to encourage revision of papers. (PRA)

Offers student-centered reading activities designed to bring students to reading maturity and involvement in literature. Discusses partner reading, dramatizing and performing texts, transforming texts, journal writing, discussion, and writing. (PRA)

Provides a definition and description of the response process and a description of the teacher's role. Describes ERMAA (experiencing the literary work, responding, mapping and analyzing multiple responses, and affirming the inherent individuality of response), a one-week strategy designed to facilitate literary response in the classroom. (RS)

Describes how literature-response journals were used in a fifth-grade social studies class, as students "journaled" with their parents as they read four Civil War novels. (SR)

Describes how the authors worked with five groups of second and fourth graders using picture books written and illustrated by Patricia Polacco in a project that involved reading Polacco's books aloud to the children, encouraging their aesthetic engagement with books, valuing children's questions, and culminating in a session in which children…

Reflects on how the author's third-grade students, experienced in literary conversation from their reading workshop, transferred the practice of literary conversation to their writing workshop. (SR)

Asserts that to implement successful literature groups in which students discuss their responses to a common piece of literature they have read, a teacher must consider setting an appropriate classroom environment, choosing quality literature, forming heterogeneous groups, selecting reading schedules, teaching diverse methods of responding,…

Examines how researchers can study children's interaction with literature, discussing various perspectives that can be taken on children's literary responses and suggesting lines of inquiry and concepts that might be useful for the continued examination of children's responses. Focuses on the author, the literary text itself, the reader, and the…

Discusses Garth Boomer's 1989 keynote address. Suggests it prefigured debates central to English teachers' professional development, to the pages of his journal, in Australia's classrooms for the next 10 years on the following issues: (1) progressivism/critical literacy divide; (2) variations on the genre debate; (3) reader-response theory vs.…

Using a critical model of reader response to literature in diverse urban secondary classrooms is important. The model helps teachers encourage diverse readers to generate their own text so they can engage with text that is more interesting than the traditional canon and become more willing and able to respond. Samples of diverse urban students'…

This qualitative exploratory study investigated what teachers and second graders learned when student questions were the nucleus of literature discussions. Data showed that students were eager to pose questions that addressed what they needed and wanted to understand about literature and life and that teachers have a tendency to impose their own…

Explores the reader response patterns and intergenerational dialogue produced by five high school/university student pairs reading and reacting to a young adult multicultural novel, Gary Soto's "Buried Onions." Concludes that participants offered multiple perspectives, maintained mutual respect for each other's interpretations, and revealed the…

Investigates the possibilities that a reader response approach offered strong female characters to four middle school girls reading and talking about two young adult novels. Examines issues involved in negotiating meaning in such literature discussions, including real talk, "inappropriate" talk, preferences in group talk, and privileged talk.…

Analyzes effects of using carefully assisted case studies to prepare preservice teachers to be more knowledgeable and skilled in supporting children's response to literature. Finds that, over time, preservice teachers' question types shifted in amount and content, moving from teacher dominance to child-teacher dialogue. Notes teachers became more…